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FILE - In this Nov. 9, 2014, file photo, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, left, and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones talk during an NFL football game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Dallas Cowboys at Wembley Stadium in London. For all of the public (and players' association) angst regarding Goodell, who enters his second decade in charge on Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016, he couldn't be held in higher esteem by most of the 32 team owners _ his bosses. "I know how passionate he is about the game, how committed he is," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones says. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File) ORG XMIT: NY171

INDIANAPOLIS -- Jerry Jones on Monday will appeal to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to drop the league's efforts to recoup about $2 million in legal fees from the Cowboys owner. The hearing will take place in Palm Beach, Fla., where NFL meetings are taking place later in the week.

The league's other owners want repayment for costs claimed to be incurred by Jones' threat to sue the compensation committee over Goodell's contract extension. The Cowboys also publicly supported running back Ezekiel Elliott's two-month fight in federal court over a six-game suspension for alleged domestic violence. Cowboys counsel Jason Cohen attended the hearings as an observer and filed an affidavit in support of Elliott's case.

As part of Jerry Jones' appeal today, one of Ezekiel Elliott's attorneys will present an affidavit and wire transfers they say show Jones didn't bankroll Elliott's legal fight, source said. The NFL says Jones owes $2M+ for costs incurred by clubs on Zeke case, Goodell contract.

Jones met with Dallas-area reporters Saturday on the Cowboys' famed private bus that travels to events such as the ongoing NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis. But he chose his words carefully when he was asked why he's fighting back. (Hint: it's not about the money).

"I think I'm going to be pretty limited in my comments because of the pending hearing that we have," Jones said. "But a hearing before the Commissioner is like a courtroom. You separate the wheat from the chaff, and you get right into the facts as they are, and I welcome that.

"Looking forward to my time with him regarding both the issues of how we were involved or not involved in the Ezekiel Elliott issue as well as the issue of what we did or didn't do relative to his contract negotiation. Those will be the subject areas, but the key thing is it's really factual...you...address the facts. I know he wants to know that, and I want him to know what the facts are."

Jones, who will be under oath at the hearing, avoided specifics Saturday when asked how he could be held financially accountable for Elliott's legal fight. There's no set timeline for a ruling.

"Again, there's no arm-waving," Jones said of Monday's hearing. "Just get right to exactly what happened in both instances, and we'll both be better for it."

Jones was asked about the tumultuous last year, when he went from being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame to a season of controversy. It included Elliott's suspension, criticism over how he handled the national anthem protests and the simmering fight with Goodell and now with other owners who have reportedly led the way in seeking to recover the fees. Jones said it's a microcosm of his decades in the NFL, and he doesn't view the span negatively.

"If you look back at the 29 years [I've owned the team]," he said, "it was marked throughout...doing everything I would to make the league better to work with, hopefully to lead, lead by example, suggest ideas that might be controversial, take issue if you will, every step of the way to make the Cowboys better, and in doing so make the league better.

"And so last year was very much the same thing. ...Unlike a player when you're in the Hall of Fame you're playing days are over, but my playing days weren't over."